Overview

One way is for the current gamemode to be Xenomorphs, in which a xenomorph-infested spaceship flies to the station to make a nest. But it is currently broken.

Another way is for admins to spawn them. This can either be as a forced random event that is exactly like the Centcom alert, or by just spawning some facehuggers and/or eggs somewhere on the station.

Lastly, NPC Xenomorphs can be found in away missions or the asteroid.

As a Xeno

This guide is fairly comprehensive and long. Playing as aliens and against aliens takes some finesse, so make sure to read it all.

Prologue - Facehuggers

An alien is on my face, help!

If a facehugger jumps onto, or is thrown onto someones face, it usually rips off the mask (if they have one) and attempts to infect the person it's on. If the facehugger is taken off in the first few seconds, the person is usually not affected. Some helmets/masks will prevent facehuggers from latching onto your face, such as Bio Hoods.

Being facehugged is not a guarantee of infestation. There is at least a small chance that you will not become the host to an alien Larva.

If you've been infected, there will usually be telltale signs. You'll feel sick. Your throat will be sore. You'll cough a lot. These symptoms mean you are forming a larva. Using a Health Analyzer will show an Unidentified Foreign Body if you are infected.

There are a couple of way to deal with this. Either ripping out the larva through Surgery, or having yourself scanned and ready to clone when you eventually explode. Hydroponics cloning is also a viable method. Note that you will be gibbed when the larva comes out, so there's very little hope for you after that.

You may just be killed to stop the infection from spreading if none of these options are available to you.

Phase One - As a Larva

I'm a larva, what do I do?

You've just spawned and are weak.

Above the chat window is your status window. It has index tabs. Click the Alien tab. It shows you all your alien powers.

As a larva you cannot attack and you have no special alien powers aside from 'Crawl through Vent'.

You can talk to the hivemind by using 'say ":a' (e.g. Say ":a I'm an alien!").

If there's anyone around when you burst, you may be spotted and killed. Run for your life. Finding a vent is your best, and probably only chance of survival.

If you're not in a good spot, find the nearest vent and crawl through it.

A good spot is anywhere where you A) are not likely to be found and B) have an easy access vent. If it's dark, that's even better, since someone who comes inside may not see you unless they get close.

You can crawl through vents faster than anyone is going to react to your presence, so don't be afraid to scout out as many locations as you can to figure out the best place to hide.

If for any reason your hiding place is found out, don't be afraid to crawl through the vents and find a new place.

If you're stuck in a room with no vents, and doors you can't open, turn "hide" on in the alien tab and hide under the table. Hopefully nobody will know you're there.

Once you're in your spot, sit and wait to evolve.

Under your 'Status' tab, there's a progress bar. When it reaches 200, you'll receive a pop-up window with choices on how to evolve.

Phase Two - As an Adult Xeno

I'm a Xeno! Now what?

As an adult Xeno, you have a lot more freedom in what you can do. Your intents are slightly different from a humans.

Help - You nuzzle other aliens and caress humans. Fairly pointless.

Stun - You tackle humans and knock them down for quite a while. You also harmlessly bite other Xenos.

Harm - You slash at humans doing ~20 damage. You can also 'wound' them which causes them to fall over and deals an extra ~10 damage. You also harmlessly bite other Xenos.

Grab - Much the same as a human, however when you aggressively grab a human, you can then click yourself to devour them. This takes some time, and they can escape if they aren't stunned. Only hunters can then regurgitate humans they have eaten. Be careful, as humans can still move around in your stomach, and if they have sharp implements, they may just break out. You also harmlessly bite other Xenos.

Hunt and Stalk are Run and Walk respectively.

Below are a summary of the classes:

Hunters - Are strong and agile, able to hunt away from the hive and rapidly move through ventilation shafts. Hunters generate plasma slowly and have low reserves. The fastest and strongest physically.

Has 125% health.

Builds 5 plasma per tick, to a maximum of 150 plasma.

Hits for around ~22 damage.

Devours at 3 times the regular speed.

Sentinels - Are tasked with protecting the hive and are deadly up close and at a range. They are not as physically imposing nor fast as the hunters.

Has 150% health.

Builds 10 plasma per tick, to a maximum of 250 plasma.

Hits for around ~20 damage.

Drones - Are the working class, offering the largest plasma storage and generation. They are the only caste which may evolve again, turning into the dreaded alien queen. The weakest and slowest.

Has 100% health.

Builds 15 plasma per tick, to a maximum of 500 plasma.

Hits for around ~18 damage.

If you are the first, or one of the first Larva to evolve, you want to become a Drone, as you'll need a Queen to be able to make eggs, then get facehuggers, then make more larva.

STOP RIGHT THERE. Don't just run off to kill people. Or ever. Infesting is always better than killing.

As an alien, killing someone is something you never want to do. Ever. Killing them means you can't get them infested, and infesting them is what you want to be doing.

Revealing yourself now is probably not a good move. Hold off until you've built up your nest.

Xenomorphs run on plasma. Your body stores plasma and your powers need it to work. You can absorb plasma two ways: plasma in the air and weeds. These effects can stack. Below are a list of some of your powers:

Hunter:

Toggle leap - This is an HUD action button, next to the arm icons. When activated, click to leap somewhere. Leaping will incapacitate a foe for a short while. On the other hand, leaping into a wall or similar will stun you a short while.

Crawl through Vent - Requires no plasma and is exactly the same as doing it as a larva. You can select any location that still has unwelded vents.

Plant Weeds - Takes (50) plasma, and it something you should be doing often. Makes purple sacs which spawn weeds around them and allow aliens to heal and build up plasma on them. Again, these are very important.

Devour - Not a verb, but deserves a place on this list. Get an aggressive grab on someone, then click on yourself. The victim takes oxygen and brute damage, make sure you don't kill him before you're able to infect him. Dead mobs are absorbed, and can't be regurgitated. Hunters devour at three times the regular speed.

Regurgitate - Takes no plasma, and expels anyone you have devoured from your stomach. You can devour people by grabbing them aggressively and then clicking on yourself, though it takes a while.

Toggle Night Vision

Transfer Plasma - Allows you to transfer an amount of plasma to another alien, as long as you're adjacent to them.

Whisper - Takes (10) plasma, send a telepathic message.

Sentinel:

Corrosive Acid - Takes (200) plasma and can melt almost any object adjacent to you. It does take a while though, and can't melt reinforced walls. Also appears in the right-click menu.

Crawl through Vent

Plant Weeds

Devour

Regurgitate

Spit Neurotoxin - Takes (50) plasma and causes anyone hit to fall over for a short time. Travels like a taser electrode, so be careful.

Toggle Night Vision

Transfer Plasma

Whisper

Drone:

Corrosive Acid

Crawl through Vent

Evolve - Takes (500) plasma, and allows a drone to evolve into a Queen.

Plant Weeds

Devour

Regurgitate

Secrete Resin - Takes (55) plasma and allows you to spawn a resin wall, membrane, or nest where you're standing. Membranes are see-through but weaker, walls are stronger and blocks light. Nest are essentially beds with an unbuckle delay that only aliens can buckle mobs to.

Toggle Night Vision

Transfer Plasma

Whisper

If you don't plant weeds, you won't build plasma, so plant those weeds and store some up. If you waste your plasma before you plant weeds you are screwed, unless plasma is in the air, and even then you absorb far more plasma over time from weeds.

Now comes decision time. Do you want to evolve into a queen or be a marauding hunter/sentinel?

If you are the first (or one of the first) aliens, you should evolve into a queen. Without a queen, there is no way to spawn additional facehuggers, and no way to expand the brood. Aliens are not a threat without facehuggers, so queens are a must-have.

If there's already a queen, you can choose to stay as a regular adult and start creating chaos. There are good reasons to do this. Queens move slow and cannot vent crawl, so having hunter aliens makes collecting new hosts much easier.

For the sake of this guide we will assume you are one of the first aliens, but if you join as an alien partway into the infestation of the station you can skip to the final phase.

Since you probably want to become a queen, you'll have to pick Drone. Your best bet is to just sit tight and build up 500 plasma to evolve. The sooner, the better.

The crew may probably be looking for you at this point, so make sure you're in a relatively safe spot.

Once you evolve you are very slow and won't be able to vent crawl. You will be very vulnerable until you build up an army of facehuggers, so plan your nesting ground accordingly.

If for any reason you know that the genetics lab or toxin lab are no longer being used and the monkeys are still alive, nest there.

During this time you can continue to scout around through various vents and see where people on the station are.

Jumping through vents and planting additional weeds in random places is a great way to divert attention from wherever your actual nest is. The crew will be distracted at the sight of weeds, so it's often worth it even though it does slow your progression to queen.

Now it's time to play the waiting game again. 500 plasma and it's on to phase three.

Phase Three - As a Queen

I'm a queen, but how is babby formed?

Queen - Large, slow, and slightly tougher, but not any more physically powerful than the rest of the Xenos. The only Xeno that can lay facehugger eggs.

Has 250% health.

Builds 20 plasma per tick, to a maximum of 500 plasma.

Hits for around ~18 damage.

Powers:

Corrosive Acid

Lay Egg - Takes (75) plasma. Your unique skill. Lays an egg which will hatch into a facehugger. Facehuggers can then be used to make more larva.

Plant Weeds

Devour

Regurgitate

Secrete Resin

Spit Neurotoxin

Toggle Night Vision

Transfer Plasma

Whisper

Let's get this out of the way. First, you can caress anyone with your scythe-like arm by clicking on them an empty hand, with the Help intent active, while they're next to you. This has absolutely no effect.

You're a queen. Awesome. You get some nifty bonuses and defects compared to regular aliens. Let's go over them.

Cons: You are slow. Snail's pace. You also can't vent crawl. You basically have zero mobility compared to everything else in the game. You also stand out with a unique sprite.

Pros: You can lay eggs, you build plasma much faster, and you have more health.

Your first task is to lay an egg. You start with 250 plasma even though you needed 500 to evolve, and you'll build more very quickly.

If at any point in time you have plasma built up and don't know what to do with it, lay another egg. Laying more eggs increases the facehugger swarm and is your best weapon against the humans.

Use a facehugger on a victim to start the impregnation process. Throwing the hugger at them will also work. Make sure they have no helmet, and ideally no mask. A mask has a 20 % chance to block a facehugger.

You can open any door that isn't ID locked, but locked and/or bolted doors require that you spit corrosive acid on them. Corrosive acid is your all-access pass to the station. If you're stuck for any reason, or want to get in somewhere (example, rooms with monkeys or plasma tanks), use acid. It takes a while to eat through doors usually, so spit early and lay eggs while you wait.

Alone, aliens are weak, and a queen even more so. One lucky assistant with a toolbox to the head can end your infestation very quickly, so don't let it happen. Always lay low and keep a wall of eggs and facehuggers between you and anywhere humans can get at you from.

Remember to spit Neurotoxin on those who get too close (use your alien tab). This should stun them for long enough to let you get away.

You can take items off humans, though knowing what they do is very metagamey, so be cautious.

Drag anyone you incapacitate back towards the heart of your hive. Make sure that when they get back up, a facehugger will be within jumping range. Once they're impregnated, feel free to drag them to some dark corner and protect them until they explode into a new alien baby.

Monkeys are viable facehugger targets, and are a fantastic way to rapidly expand the size of your brood without needing to hunt down humans. From a meta standpoint, they also let more players into the game without killing anyone, so it gets more ghosts back to playing, which is always good.

Once you've amassed an army of facehuggers, and hopefully ambushed a couple of unsuspecting crew who were unfortunate enough to stumble on your nest, you should communicate closely with the other aliens and prepare to start really branching out across the station. You've already started this, probably, especially since the other alien players are probably being more aggressive than you.

General Advice

You do not need air to breathe as a Xenomorph! Feel free to walk around the outside of the station and make a good safe area to plant weeds and store plasma on (i.e., the solars, or toxins test area if no one is bombing or has bombed it). You can also spit acid on windows/grills to destroy them, so any window is a potential entry point. If you get spaced you're usually out of luck, though!

The atmospherics vent leads to a safe 3x3 room with a single canister inside it. Go here if you really have nowhere else to go, as it's 99% safe. Only bombs can get you there and even the AI can't see that room.

You can see in the dark, and humans can't. Destroying light sources may be useful.

You can also pick up anything medium sized or larger, such as boxes and backpacks.

As a Human

Aliens! Help!

Try to keep yourself and others around you calm. It's no good running around screaming and getting massacred by Xenos.

Roleplay is still in effect, regardless of the large alien monstrosities. Try to keep In Character.

If someone gets infested, make sure they get medical care ASAP. Surgery can remove a xenomorph Larva, but otherwise cloning will have to do.

If no other option is available, killing or isolating the infected will help stop the spread of xenomorphs.

Crew members may seek to make peaceful contact with the aliens. This can lead to peaceful cooperation for both parties, but may just end up in a large amount of dead on both sides. So don't do that unless if you know what are you doing.

They're everywhere! What now?

If all other options have failed, combat may be the only option.

Try to declare red alert. This will at the very least keep people alert, and may get you access to the Emergency Response Team.

Lasers and bullets work on Xenomorphs, however, they also work on people. Keep your firing lanes clear!

Melee weapons are not recommended unless you're in groups. A single Xenomorph can tackle you and then have enough time to put a facehugger on you or kill you.

To avoid increasing Xeno numbers, destroying monkeys may be useful.

Restrain individuals who wish to spread the infection or are helping hostile xenomorphs.

Flashes don't work on xenomorphs, though flashbangs do.

You best bet to escape a fight is to use a stun weapon and then run.

If fighting to kill stunning and then beating is effective.

Larva should be killed if possible.

Welding vents restrict Xenomorph mobility.

Build and use a combat mech (Such as a Durand and a Gygax) to increase effectiveness against a crowd of Xenos.

Fire works on structures made by Xenomorphs (alien weeds, eggs, purple sacs, etc.), but Xenos themselves are immune to fire and cold.

Seriously consider calling the escape shuttle. Be aware that at times admins will send it back under the context of "Destroy the menace before calling for the shuttle, as you will spread the infection."

I'm the only one left!

Make sure you're the only one left. Use radios, intercoms, or PDA messages to contact any potential survivors.

If you have weapons, use them. Don't use them to hunt them however.

If you see a mech, use it! If it's DNA-locked, then find another way.

Make your way to the bridge or the captain's quarters and try to call the shuttle. It's the only way out now.

If the shuttle is here, get on it, weld the doors shut, make sure nothing is in there with you, and hide as best you can. Central Command has a plan for this sort of thing.

If you are eaten alive by xenos, there's only one way out. Take out your oxygen bottle or any other weapon in your hand, and move around as much as possible. You'll slam the thing you're holding into the alien's stomach lining, and if you do it enough you may explode out of the aliens chest cavity like some kind of reverse-larvae. Sharp implements work best.

If the shuttle isn't coming, write a book of warning and contempt and throw yourself into space. Alternatively find a corner to cry in.

Fluff

Facehugger

A parasitic cycle in xenomorph production with the appearance of two human hands held together and attached to a spiny, powerful tail. It has a proboscis it uses to implant embryos and provide oxygen while strangling a victim. The finger-like appendages are used for transportation and to attach itself firmly to a host body.

Once implantation is complete, the facehugger falls off and dies. Removal of a facehugger while it is copulating is always fatal for the victim, either because of a snapped neck, trauma from the facehugger ripping off the face of its victim, or the powerfully acidic blood of the xeno. Victims rarely remember implantation or even the act of being jumped in most cases, likely because of the asphyxiation caused by a facehugger's tail during the process and the psychological trauma of the act. ((Ahahah, no. If you "RP" this, you are a horrible person.))

Like all of the xenomorph species, not much is understood about its growth, motivations, or senses, but it is known that a facehugger can tell the difference between a living humanoid and a non-living humanoid such as corpses or cyborgs and that they are suicidally focused on reproduction. Xenomorphs often use crowds of facehuggers to take down large prey or grouped or well-defended humans.

Larva

Also known as chestbursters because of their method of exodus from the host body, larval xenomorphs are the third known stage in reproduction for that species. While developing in the body, xenomorph embryos attach to blood vessels to absorb nutrients and complete its unstable genetic structure using the host's DNA.

Through an unknown process, this always results in a functioning offspring. This form is small compared to the adult, limbless, and serpentine. They have a strong instinct to hide after forcing their way out through the ribcage and violently tearing their host body apart. If left alone, xenomorph larva will undergo an unknown transformation process to adulthood.

It is believed at this stage that the xenomorph is at its most vulnerable due to its small size and apparent lack of many senses, though this should not be misunderstood -- a larva is still deadly. Its powerful thrashing and sharp teeth got it out of a human sternum, after all.

Hunter

This form is usually the last in any given xenomorph's life cycle. There are many variants of the hunter (including forms that do no hunting, per se), but the human form is the most commonly seen on stations for obvious reasons.

The hunter sports a phallic-shaped skull with hidden, mostly useless eyes protected by a one-way transparent dome. It has a host of esoteric senses, most prominently a theorized echolocation (explaining their near-constant hissing) and electroreception, though its primary sense appears to be smell. The scent of pheromones is experimentally shown to be the primary communication device of xenomorphs, most effectively transmitted by the ropey purple weeds the adults spread around the station. It is unknown where this tissue comes from, as xenomorphs refuse to make it in captivity.

The primary byproduct of this weed is the strange substance plasma and as such most corporations are extremely interested in the connection between the xenomorphs and that chemical for production reasons. Like the facehugger, the hunter's blood is highly acidic, and there are rumors that it is capable of eating even through space station hulls, though it must be said that this is only a rumor.

The adult xenomorph is a living weapon, with an exoskeleton thick enough to absorb or redirect most trauma and temperature extremes, scythe-like claws, and a multi-tiered jaw system capable of projecting an acidic compound presumingly from their stomachs. Some varieties of hunter are crested, and most varieties have a heavy tail with protective ridges. Xenomorphs at this stage show semi-sapience and problem-solving abilities, and are capable of using pack-oriented tactics, creative stealth, and psychological manipulation. It is reported that in the presence of enough plasma xenomorphs can communicate in a basic way with sentient species, but there is little evidence to lend credence to such an absurd notion.

Queen

Very few xenomorphs undergo the transformation into queen. It appears to be done only in the case of very specific hive pressures. They are the only xenomorphs capable of laying the eggs that hatch facehuggers. While much larger than the hunters, they're also much slower, but are indeed much tougher. Even accounting for the size difference, a xenomorph queen can take drastically more punishment. A queen is most likely found where there are high levels of plasma, surrounded by hunters and swarms of freshly hatched facehuggers.

They are significantly more intelligent and highly protective of their offspring. While slow, they have all the adaptations and weapons of their previous hunter forms, a larger, thicker crest to protect their brain casing, and higher internal stores of plasma which they can utilize for the shaping of resin, the laying of eggs, destructive survival defenses, and even a complex and poorly understood efficient means to form a natural cloak. Like all xenomorphs, there is little information about them.

Oddities

You can perform CPR on any Xeno as a human, but they have to be under -50% HP and have suffocation damage for it to work.

Regular Aliens can't understand humans, and humans can't understand aliens. A pAI with a universal translator can talk to them, and a Queen is able to converse normally. Regular aliens can whisper into a humans head to talk to them.

NPC Aliens will treat player xenomorphs as hostile. They will not do melee damage but any type with range will fire at the player.